Author Michelle Schlicher made direct contact, to introduce herself and offer me the opportunity to read her latest work of contemporary literary fiction ‘Come This Way’. I would like to thank her for considering Fiction Books as a suitable review site for her work and I look forward to taking time out from my current run of mystery / thriller reads, to check out this intriguing and interesting story.

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The Book … ‘COMETHISWAY‘

A hiking and outdoor enthusiast, fifty-year-old Fern Conrad can’t imagine spending her time doing anything else, much to the dismay of her daughter, Colby.

Kara Dawson, a twenty-five-year-old student therapist, has shut life out to focus on her sister’s illness. That is, until a chance meeting pushes her to confront the possibilities—by letting go and moving forward.

Eighty-three-year-old Nettie Campbell heals in the hospital while facing the consequences of her actions. Can she repair relationships and forge new bonds as she comes to terms with the truth?

‘Come This Way’ is an emotional, honest look into the lives of women who are discovering their own strength. It is a story about difficult choices and the people around us who help us find our way.

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The Author … MICHELLESCHLICHER

Michelle is the author of two previous novels ‘The Blue Jay’ and Gracie’s Song. A graduate of Iowa State University, she subsequently worked for six years in communications and marketing.

She lives in a suburb of Des Moines with her husband and two children.

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house during the last week. Be warned that Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home, where links may be added each week. So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for our three new joint administrators, after all, we all like to receive them …

I think that Kara’s story is probably going to be the most emotional and difficult of the three to deal with, although rather than focussing on an illness in someone I know or am related to, I tend to take the opposite approach and shut the illness out, carrying on as if nothing is wrong. I guess that Kara discovers the ‘happy medium’, which allows her to care for her sister, whilst accepting that it is still okay for her to carry on with her own life.

There are probably quite a few lessons to be learned form the three women’s stories.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, it is always good to have you visit 🙂

I couldn’t read any one particular genre on too regular a basis, I do like to ring the changes quite often.

I am intrigued to discover what 83 year old Nettie Campbell has done to have to face the consequences of her actions whilst in hospital, it must have been pretty bad !

I shall run the regular series of promotional posts for the book, however, as it seems that there are three stories running side by side, I guess any feature will only ever centre around one particular character at a time.

I’m certain there will be plenty of lessons to be learned from the three so very different examples presented in the storyline of this book.

For me, knowing the right thing to do or the correct path to take in a given circumstance isn’t always the difficult thing to recognise; it’s taking that initial action which is going to help bring about the desired change which is the hardest part.

I know how often I will choose the easiest option over one which is more difficult, but which, in my heart of hearts, I know to be the right course.

An intriguing set of circumstances for the three main protagonists sets up ‘Come This Way’ as one for my TBR pile.

I hope that all is well with you and thanks for taking the time to stop by 🙂

I’m not too sure if ‘Come This Way’, is a series of stand alone short stories collated into one book, or if the three stories come together at some point under a common theme. I shall be interested in finding out.

I must admit I do prefer it if the individual stories come together at some point in a book, so that there is a common theme as I head towards the ending, author Cathy Kelly is always the master of that particular writing style.

I shan’t however mind if Michelle has written this as a series of separate short stories which have nothing in common, so long as each profile is a self contained story in its own right, with a definitive beginning, middle and end!

I’m the world’s worst at making difficult choices and tend to either sit on the fence, or bury my head in the sand completely, in the hope that the problem will go away on its own.

First Lines

1 – A Slight Lapse Morning. And a pretty rotten morning at that. Maybe it was the rain pounding on the window behind my head (or the tiny 1812 Overture pounding between my ears) but I hadn’t slept well. In fact now that I really thought about it, I couldn’t say for sure that […]

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